KYIV, Ukraine (NewsNation) — The Pentagon said Wednesday that over the last 24 hours, it has seen some Russian troops in the areas around Kyiv, moving north toward or into Belarus.
However, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the U.S. does not view this as a withdrawal. Instead, he said, this is an attempt by Russia to get more supplies and reposition the troops.
“We don’t know exactly where these troops are going to go,” he said.
Britain’s Defense Ministry warned that while heavy losses have forced some Russian units to return to Belarus and Russia, Moscow would likely compensate for any reduction in ground maneuvers by using mass artillery and missile strikes.
Russia has vowed to scale back military operations in Ukraine’s capital, but many are skeptical of this pledge, especially as shelling continued in areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv that hit homes, shops, libraries and other “civilian infrastructure.”
The Ukrainian military said Russian troops were intensifying their attacks around the eastern city of Izyum and the eastern Donetsk region, after redeploying some units from other areas.
President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in the war and to offer $500 million more in aid for the country.
Five weeks into the invasion, the number of Ukrainians fleeing the country topped 4 million, according to the United Nations, while the economic repercussions from the war and the West’s sanctions against Moscow widened. Thousands have died.
On Wednesday, Germany, Europe’s industrial powerhouse, issued a warning over its natural gas supplies amid concerns that Russia could cut off deliveries unless it is paid in rubles. Poland announced steps to end all Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.
At a round of talks held Tuesday between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, the faint outlines of a possible peace agreement seemed to emerge when the Ukrainian delegation offered a framework under which Ukraine would declare itself neutral, dropping its bid to join NATO.
Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said on Russian TV that the Ukrainian proposals are a “step to meet us halfway, a clearly positive fact.”
He warned that the parties are still far from reaching an agreement, but said, “We know now how to move further toward compromise. We aren’t just marking time in talks.”
But on Wednesday, the Kremlin said no breakthroughs had been made.
Ukraine said it would also be willing to hold talks over a 15-year period on the future of the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014.
In the wake of the proposals and some muted optimism, Zelenskyy warned the world and his own people not to get ahead of themselves. He said Ukrainian troops had forced Russia’s hand, adding that, “We shouldn’t let down our guard” because the invading army can still carry out attacks.
“Ukrainians are not naïve people,” he said. “Ukrainians have already learned during the 34 days of the invasion and during the past eight years of war in the Donbas that you can trust only concrete results.”
The U.S. and others also expressed doubts about Russia’s intentions.
While Moscow portrayed it as a goodwill gesture, its ground troops have become bogged down and taken heavy losses in their attempts to seize Kyiv and other cities. Last week and again on Tuesday, the Kremlin seemed to lower its war aims, saying its “main goal” is gaining control of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
“We judge the Russian military machine by its actions, not just its words,” British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News on Wednesday. “There’s obviously some skepticism that it will regroup to attack again rather than seriously engaging in diplomacy.”
Biden, asked whether the Russian announcement was a sign of progress in the talks or an attempt by Moscow to buy time to continue its assault, said: “We’ll see. I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested Russian indications of a pullback could be an attempt by Moscow to “deceive people and deflect attention.”
It wouldn’t be the first time. In the tense buildup to the invasion, the Russian military announced some units were loading equipment onto rail cars and preparing to return to their home bases after completing exercises. At the time, Putin was signaling interest in diplomacy. But 10 days later, Russia launched its invasion.
Russia’s deadly siege in the south continues, with civilians trapped in the ruins of Mariupol and other devastated cities. The latest satellite imagery from commercial provider Maxar Technologies showed hundreds of people waiting outside a grocery store amid reports of food and water shortages.
“There is what Russia says and there is what Russia does, and we’re focused on the latter,” Blinken said in Morocco. “And what Russia is doing is the continued brutalization of Ukraine.”
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said her office is looking into allegations that some residents of Mariupol have been evacuated to areas controlled by Russian forces or to Russia itself.
Even as negotiators gathered Tuesday, Putin’s forces blasted a gaping hole in a nine-story government administration building in a strike on the southern port city of Mykolaiv, killing at least 12 people, emergency authorities said. The search for more bodies in the rubble continued.
“It’s terrible. They waited for people to go to work” before striking the building, said regional governor Vitaliy Kim. “I overslept. I’m lucky.”
Reports of a Red Cross warehouse in Mariupol being slammed by at least two military strikes have also surfaced. Maxar Technology shows the northern end of the warehouse was hit between March 19-22 and the second one happened between March 23 and 26.